Biological macromolecules catalyze specific reactions in biological systems. This makes them desirable reagents with a host of applications. However, the large-scale commercial viability of biological macromolecules is limited by critical factors that include poor stability under and limited tolerance to industrial operational conditions, technical difficulties in recovery, and recycling from the reaction systems.
Lipid membranes and vesicles mimic the biological cell structure. Due to its self-assembled uniform structure and resultant physicochemical properties, they have gained more research attention and application in a variety of fields. However, lipid membranes and vesicles are fragile metastable systems. The monoleyer, bilayer and multilayer structures tend to be easily destroyed under varying conditions of temperature, external stress or changing media. Therefore, efforts are underway to immobilize biological macromolecules, lipid membranes and lipid vesicles in ways that stabilize and preserve their reactivity and uniform structure.
However, conventional sol-gel encapsulation procedures have limitations. The primary drawback is that the resultant gel is extremely fragile. It is easily broken under mechanical stress, so its encapsulation is not likely to provide a practical device. In spite of advances made in this area, there remains a need for a system that is endurable and whose mechanical properties may be modified as desired.